Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many computing racks, which may include server racks. Each computing rack, in turn, may include many computer systems, servers, associated computer equipment, etc.
Because the computer room of a computing facility may contain a large number of servers, a large amount of electrical power may be required to operate the facility. In addition, the electrical power is distributed to a large number of locations spread throughout the computer room (e.g., many racks spaced from one another, and many servers in each rack). Usually, a facility receives a power feed at a relatively high voltage. This power feed is stepped down to a lower voltage (e.g., 208V). A network of cabling, bus bars, power connectors, and power distribution units, is used to deliver the power at the lower voltage to numerous specific components in the facility.
Computer systems typically include a number of components that generate waste heat. Such components include printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, power supplies, and processors. For example, some computers with multiple processors may generate 250 watts of waste heat. Some known computer systems include a plurality of such larger, multiple-processor computers that are configured into rack-mounted components, and then are subsequently positioned within a rack computer system. Some known rack computer systems include 40 such rack-mounted components and such rack computer systems will therefore generate as much as 10 kilowatts of waste heat. Moreover, some known data centers include a plurality of such rack computer systems.
Some known data centers include methods and apparatus that facilitate waste heat removal from rack systems. Such methods and apparatus can include one or more instances of mechanical infrastructure which removes heat from one or more rack computer systems, including one or more of an intake air moving device which induces air flow into a space, an exhaust air moving device which induces air flow out of a space, one or more air cooling systems which chill an air flow, etc. Active air cooling systems can include one or more of a mechanical cooling system, direct evaporation cooling system, coolant circulation cooling system, chilled water cooling system, etc.
In some cases, where some or all infrastructure initially installed in a data center is based on expected support requirements of server racks which are expected to be installed in the data center, the server racks which are actually installed in a data center may differ in support requirements from the server racks upon which the infrastructure for a data center is originally designed. In addition, the support requirements of installed server racks may vary from rack to rack. Infrastructure which is designed based on expected support requirements of installed server racks may be at least partially restricted in supporting server racks that are actually installed.
The amount of computing capacity needed for any given data center may change rapidly as business needs dictate. Most often, there is a need for increased computing capacity at a location. Initially providing computing capacity in a data center, or expanding the existing capacity of a data center (in the form of additional servers, for example), is resource-intensive and may take many months to implement. Substantial time and resources are typically required to design and build a data center (or expansion thereof), install cabling infrastructure, install racks, structural support infrastructure, electrical distribution infrastructure, and cooling infrastructure, etc., to support changes in computing capacity. Additional time and resources are typically needed to conduct inspections and obtain certifications and approvals, such as for electrical and HVAC systems. Changes in computing capacity may result in changes in infrastructure support required to support the changed computing capacity. Installing infrastructure equipment, modifying infrastructure equipment, etc. may be time consuming and expensive, if even feasible. For example, where an installed server rack in a portion of a data center is replaced with another server rack, where the new server rack has substantially greater infrastructure support requirements, modifying the infrastructure which supported the previously-installed server rack may be difficult, particularly where the infrastructure to be modified lacks sufficient excess capacity to provide the needed support to the newly-installed server rack.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.